


Building the Man

by Yukito



Category: Terminator (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-24
Updated: 2011-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-28 01:17:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/302141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yukito/pseuds/Yukito
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just a lil stocking stuffer dealing with the events between Terminator 3 and Terminator Salvation. Enjoy!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Building the Man

**Author's Note:**

  * For [angylinni](https://archiveofourown.org/users/angylinni/gifts).



“John?” Kate walked into the darkened room where could make out a figure of a man leaning over a desk. She knew exactly what he looked like even if it was too dark to make out the features on his face. His brow would be furrowed and his eyes would be opened, fixated on nothing as he let his burdens consume him. It was that very reason why she came in.

“John.” She spoke again as she walked to the wall and turned on the light. She saw him wince at the light from the corner of her eyes before she turned around and looked at him again. She closed the distance between them as stood on the other side of what used to be the presidential desk inside Crystal Peak. Now there was no president to have a desk. It was John’s.

The days after the bomb dropped had been hard on everyone. The radiation around Crystal Peak made it impossible for them to leave and so they were stuck inside the bunker helping via a very old radio system. Panic turned to determination as soon as John was able to explain to anyone who could hear him exactly what was going on and they had, from their position deep underground, started the foundation of what both of them knew would be the Resistance.

“The radiation levels have finally dipped low enough that we can leave.”

“I know.” John had checked it when he woke up – an hour before Kate – and had stole away inside the office to think about what that meant. It meant he would no longer be just a voice. He could no longer just give orders to faceless people. John would have to venture out and fulfill the destiny his mother had raised him for.

John looked up at him with uncertain eyes. “I’m not ready, Kate.”

She pressed her lips together as she looked at John. He was no longer the punk kid she thought he was. He had grown into a man whose sole concern was for others rather than himself. Over the months spent with him in Crystal Peak, they had went from friends to something much more.

“Yes, you are.” Kate believed it.

“I’m not.”

Kate leaned on the desk with her palms pressed firmly on the countertop. Her eyes hardened a little and she drew from the countless lectures she had seen her father give.

“You’re ready, John. It’s not going to be easy, but you’re ready. You’ve been ready. Those people out there need someone to lead them. They need someone who knows more about what’s going on than just some bunch of machines went homicidal. They need John Connor. They need _you_. If you’re not ready, then we might as well go out there with a white flag and tell Skynet we surrender because the time is now. Either we start to fight back, or we lose.”

John looked up and over at Kate in surprise. She always had a quiet strength about her. Even when she had discovered his break-in at the veterinarian clinic, she had been in control despite how scared she was. Now, after everything, she stood there in front of him ordering him around. It brought a small smile to his face.

The smile jarred Kate and she looked at John with slightly softer eyes. “What?”

“Mom would have liked you.”

Kate rolled her eyes, but smiled in return. “Shut up and go win a war.”


End file.
